Larry Carlton S7FM NT 2nd Gen

Roasted neck, locking tuners, great looks. What's not to like?

My guitar's nut is cracked on 2 spots, where bits have fallen off...
The upper frets on low E string side have some gray stuff near the frets, probably something to do with rounding the fingerboard or finishing the frets? Eitherway it looks really bad, like no one cleaned it up afterwards whatsoever.

Other than those 2 issues, it feels good to play. Sound could be better, I wanted more chime from the single coils, but these pups still work quite nice. Lower output volume than SD Hyperions, but it's to be expected from a lower price instrument like this.

I reached out to thomann asking for a compensation of these issues, that I'm not happy with (I might need to replace that nut). Otherwise I'm going to refund the guitar.
I was honestly expecting more from Sire, since these guitars are beautiful, maybe I just got a bad one. It's making me hesitant to order cheaper guitars now, since you won't know the quality before hand.

Overall this seems like a really nice guitar, and I want to like it, I really do. Hopefully thomann works this out